BackBox in VirtualBox

[JavaScriptDude]

I have been struggling this afternoon with getting BackBox to boot or install on VirtualBox. There were three issues to be resolved.

1) Enable EFI for VM: Settings -> System -> Motherboard -> Extended Features -> (check) Enable EFI ...
If you don't do this, you may not see the initial boot screen with options

2) Option "*Try BackBox without installing" - Garbled screen
This sometimes boots to a garbles screen and cannot be used. I have not figured out this problem yet and its gone away for the time being :-/

3) With any of the first three options (try, Install or OEM) - Screen small and dialogs cropped
By default in VBox, the GUI booted to a funky display mode. Something like 1400 x 400 or something wonky like that. If you can figure out how to change it in the VM, it will update but during initial installation, using "install BackBox" that is not possible.

After the VM is created in vbox, you can add a flag to the VM to try a display mode at boot. This can be done two ways, please shut down VM before either of these:
Use vboxmanage to set hint:
% vboxmanage setextradata "<vm_name>" GUI/LastGuestSizeHint 1024,768
You can change 1024,760 to any display that will work for you.

Optionally, you can manually edit the vbox config for the VM. Again, make sure the VM is off. The key to edit is:
(inside VirtualBox ->Machine -> ExtraData): <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1024,768"/>

That's it for the issues so far.

Best of luck to those out there with VirtualBox.

[JavaScriptDude]

[update] I deleted the VM ensuring all state was deleted for the system and the VM now picked up my last saved "Hint" display mode. It appears that VirtualBox stores the last working hint display resolution and carries that forward to all new VM loads.

In observing this behavior, its likely that only a few people will see this issue but for those who do see it, I hope my notes help.

[ostendali]

I don't use vbox or any other virtualization to install BackBox, but if anyone experiences the same pls share your issue here.